Spoonful of butter

Friday, 6 November 2015

Richmond Park with SANDQVIST and DENIM DUDES (02.11.2015)

If you follow my Instagram you know two things; one, I'm an egotistical person who loves taking selfies and modelling, and... I am so OBSESSED with my new SANDQVIST bag! I've been eyeing their bags for weeks now, and finally decided to treat myself. For those that don't know, SANDQVIST is a AMAZING Swedish brand (I love the Swedes, and Scandinavia). Normally, it does look out of place in the city (although there are collections designed for the city in mind), the bags deserved to be used in their natural environment, the wilderness.

The fog in London yesterday was CRAZY. I could barely see in front of me. Me and a friend decided to go to Richmond Park (in the fog it was sort of a cool adventure, but practically it was a stupid decision). If you're not familiar with Richmond Park, it's a really big park (understatement, it's fricking HUGE) with so many animals. Unfortunately this time around, there weren't any deers around. We saw one through the thick of the fog, as we were leaving the park - I didn't take a photo, but it would've been a fricking cool photo!

What's that I'm holding? That's 'Denim Dudes' by Amy Leverton. A super cool book, that all denim lovers must have! - I did not write that from a script, it's actually true. I recently had the opportunity to speak to H&M's senior print designer, and denim obsessed lover Kelly Harrington for Eight, and she mentioned Denim Dudes, and Amy Leverton. If Kelly recommends it, I HAD to pick it up.

That's me reading Denim Dudes, and the first issue of Eight Magazine... which you can pick up here.

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

FIN.

It's finally finished. The magazine is finally complete. I started this magazine at the end of July, with a few friends. It was an ambitious project, dedicating a publication to the works of eight incredibly talented artists from every corner of this industry. I've met so many incredibly talented people along the way, that have helped me so much, in so so many ways - especially with providing advice! I've learnt so much from all the people I've spoken to. Seriously, forget uni, forget a formal education - just start something and dive into the depths of the unknown. You will learn so much about yourself.

This magazine started as something positive, as a platform in which artists can promote their work. It sort of snowball'ed into something much bigger than I intended, reaching different digital medias - and soon on YouTube. But for me personally, it became a life vest to keep me afloat and sane during a horrible month of family problems. I'm honestly not sure what'll happen after I hit the big UPLOAD button. I'd probably crawl in a ball and cry for a few hours...

The launch issue features eight artists, a few are close friends who's work and quality I adore and strive to match. The eight artists are; Isabella Singleton (Bella Singleton), Victoria Skinner (Tigermlk), Sam Goodridge, Katarzyna Drazek, Caterina Schmitt, Kristina Lechner, Kotoka Izumi, and Eimear Varian Barry. Each and everyone of these creatives bring something different to the table, whether it be style, type of media or the sector of the industry they're in. What they share in common is they produce beautiful pieces of art in their own right. Photographers, Sam Goodridge, Katarzyna Drazek have very different photography styles and they capture beauty, and femininity in different ways. Isabella Singleton, and Caterina Schmitt produce incredibly pieces of clothing, but their styles, and their target demographics different. I could go on and write an essay about how incredibly talented each and every one of these artists are, but what I'm trying to say is - the creative direction of Eight was to make it appeal to a wide range of Art, and Fashion enthusiasts.

Probably my biggest highlight of this journey was photographing Eimear Varian Barry. I'm a huge huge huge fan of her Instagram. Seriously. If you're not following her, you should do it now - like legally, I'm pretty sure you're breaking the law by not following her. Her style is so incredible, and simply chic. Her palette are neutral colours, but through the way she layers and styles it renders the rest of the colour spectrum redundant.

I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone that has helped made this possible from my friends, to people that have given me advice and guidance along this incredible journey, and finally a huge thanks to the artists that gave me the honour of featuring their work.

Friday, 31 July 2015

New Magazine start up and my thoughts (31.07.2015)

Recently I've started a new magazine with a few friends. The magazine is called 'Eight Magazine'. It's a fashion based magazine, that focuses on highlighting up-and-coming artists. Every issue we'll feature 8 artists from a wide range of media. It won't just be 8 photographers every issue, it'll have painters, illustrations, musicians, poets, authors, sculptors, film makers, etc.

I have never done something like this before, not on this scale. This is a large collaboration with myself, 8 artists, and numerous writers and editors. I have little experience with managing a magazine, and I'm very grateful for the people I have the opportunity to work with, because they have been incredibly helpful and inspiring.

At the moment, I'm focusing more on the website and our social media to generate viewers and a following. The website focuses on posting the latest; art, fashion, film, music and photography news. I try to post two articles a day minimum. This can be difficult if I'm busy during the day, there aren't many writers that write for our website, actually it's just me and my friend James. One thing that really bugged me was, a few articles I have posted were for the sake of posting something. It didn't feel right. You can see it in some of my writing, some articles I can write a ton about, and is generally more entertaining to read. I've currently tried to stop posting junk articles - if I'm going to post something and I can't write a lot about it, I'll just post the facts. Take my latest post about the Herschel Supply Co. Fall Lookbook. The lookbook is so beautiful and well done, but I couldn't find many words to write about it, so I just posted a quote, some facts and a link to the collection. It felt more honest to write that way. I didn't have to make up some bullshit sentences or feign excitement.

Another issue I'm having with is Google Analytics. Every morning and every night, and several times throughout the day... I check Google Analytics. I need to know how many page views we're getting, how many users, what's the bounce rate, what days are doing well, and why they're doing well. But the past two days the user and view count have started to drop. I don't know why. Last Saturday, we didn't post any articles and it was one of our highest traffic days. I don't know why.

I feel like I should stop looking at Google Analytics so intensely, it provides me with facts but it doesn't predict the future. Just because a few articles about women's fashion did well, doesn't guarantee that if I write more about, that we'll get more traffic.

This is a minor diary like entry/rant that I wanted to write. Please check out Eight Magazine if you're interested in art, fashion, film, music or photography news.